TOP 100 SONGS OF THE BEATLES ― 24

"Happiness Is a Warm Gun” (Lennon –November 25, 1968) 

The BEATLES (a.k.a., The White Album) – Side 1, track 8 (2:43)
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From Wikipedia, Rolling Stone, About.com, and Google – 

"Happiness Is a Warm Gun" is a song by The Beatles, featured on the eponymous double-disc album The Beatles, also known as The White Album. It is a John Lennon composition, credited to Lennon/McCartney.

According to Lennon, the title came from the cover of a gun magazine that producer George Martin showed him: "I think he showed me a cover of a magazine that said 'Happiness Is a Warm Gun.' It was a gun magazine. I just thought it was a fantastic, insane thing to say. A warm gun means you just shot something." The reference, whether or not intermediately from the magazine, was one of many 1960s riffs on Charles M. Schulz's culturally popular saying, which began in the Peanuts comic strip and became a widely sold book, Happiness is a Warm Puppy.

Composition –

Lennon said he "put together three sections of different songs ... it seemed to run through all the different kinds of rock music." The song is thus by the composer's own admission a pastiche. The song begins with a brief lilting section ("She's not a girl who misses much..."). Drums, bass and distorted guitar are introduced as this portion of the song proceeds. The surreal imagery from this section is allegedly taken from an acid trip that Lennon and Derek Taylor experienced, with Taylor contributing the opening lines. After this, the song transitions into a Lennon song fragment called "I Need a Fix," built around an ominous-sounding guitar riff. This section drifts into the next section, a chorus of "Mother Superior jumped the gun." The final section is a doo-wop send up, with the back-up of vocals of "bang, bang, shoot, shoot."

One of the most salient musical features of the song is its frequent shifts in time signature, some tempo changes, and some unusual phrasing. The song begins in standard 4/4 time but quickly begins to deviate from the norm. There is a five bar phrase rather than the usual four with the line beginning on "She's well acquainted...". The last phrase/line of that verse ("A soap impression . . . ") has a 6/4 bar (the second measure of the phrase) before going back to 4/4 for the last two bars of the phrase, and Ringo Starr plays the downbeat on "1" in the fourth bar, giving a more unusual feel. The subsequent guitar lead and bridge can be analysed as a 3-bar pattern of 9/8, 12/8, 12/8 (or 5 bars—one of 9/8, four of 6/8, etc.), with Ringo retaining an implied 6/8 throughout, so that the snare drum downbeats are on "1" as often as not. This gives way to faster (almost double time) four bar pattern of 3/8, 6/8, 3/8, 7/8 for the "Mother Superior..." section before returning to a slower 4/4 for the doo-wop style ending. During the "When I hold you..." section, the rest of the band returns to 6/8, but Ringo stays in 4/4. This is one of the few examples of poly-rhythm in the Beatles' repertoire.

History –

"Happiness is a Warm Gun" remains one of the Beatles' more fascinating songs, functioning as a triple metaphor for heroin addiction, gun worship, and sexual obsession. More than perhaps any other Beatles song, the impetus for its creation is largely due to performance artist Yoko Ono, whom Lennon had become fixated on just before the group's trip to Rishikesh, India for spiritual instruction with the Maharashi Mahesh Yogi. Upon Lennon's return the two began their artistic and romantic relationship, and she was a constant presence in the studio during the recording of the "White Album."

Constructed with five separate sections, all in different rhythms and time signatures, the structure of "Happiness" was itself suggested by Ono, who wondered aloud during the recording of "Hey Bulldog" (February 1968) why all Beatles songs stayed in 4/4 time. It was also Yoko who turned Lennon on to heroin around the same time. The final spark in the song's creation came in the studio, when producer George Martin showed John a firearms magazine which featured an article entitled "Happiness is a Warm Gun." (Paul remembers it as an advertisement; John has variously claimed it as an article and as a cover blurb.)

The comic strip Peanuts had become quite popular with college-aged kids around 1968, largely because its characters, all children, spoke like neurotic, philosophical, politically and socially aware adults. The strip's big catchphrase had become "Happiness is a Warm Puppy," a simple declaration of love that appealed to the hippie aesthetic. It inspired countless parodies and mutations, including the one in the gun mag. Lennon, however, realized the real implication: "A warm gun means you've just shot something." He set about writing the song soon after.

The earliest version of "Happiness" appears on the demos done in late May 1968 at John's Kenwood home in Surrey, and feature only the two middle sections - the "I need a fix" refrain and the "Mother Superior" one. They're joined by Lennon ad-libbing "Yoko Ono, oh no... Yoko Ono, oh yes." But he was stuck for more. Seeking inspiration, he assembled his childhood friends Pete Shotton and Neil Aspinall as well as Beatles PR man Derek Taylor, and after dropping LSD, they began to assemble the jumble of images that became the song's first two sections, a word salad darker than those in John's previous songs "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," "I Am the Walrus," and "Glass Onion":

"She's not a girl who misses much." John, again thinking of Yoko, specifically requested a description of an intelligent, perceptive woman. Taylor remembered this as a saying of his father's. 

"She's well-acquainted with the touch of a velvet hand...". Derek had met a man in a hotel bar who claimed he always wore moleskin gloves with his girlfriend, leading to heightened sensation during sex.

"...like a lizard on a windowpane." Taylor, while living in Los Angeles, often saw lizards running quickly over his windows.

"The man in the crowd with the multi-colored mirrors on his hobnail boots." Taylor had read of a Manchester City football hooligan who'd placed mirrors on his shoes to look up ladies' skirts. John added the visual embroidery.

"Lying with his eyes while his hands are busy working overtime." Another news story, this one merely overheard by Taylor, of a man who'd constructed fake arms in order to shoplift from stores without being noticed. In context, Lennon makes this phrase seem much more sexual.

"A soap impression of his wife which he ate...". This phrase is lost to history, as no one seems to remember who or what inspired it.

"...and donated to the National Trust." The National Trust is the institution of the British government that preserves and runs public parks; this metaphor is a filthy joke of John's, for he and his schoolmates often came upon evidence of defecation in those public areas. 

The next two sections, virtually unchanged from the demo, refer directly to John's addictions to both heroin and Yoko. "I need a fix" is a common lament among junkies who need more heroin to avoid becoming sick, while "Mother Superior" is yet another Yoko reference, as John often referred to his domestic lover, in a very English tradition, as "Mother." (John's Oedipal tendencies were also well-known.) However, as the film Trainspotting points out, "Mother Superior" is also a Cockney turn of phrase that refers to a longtime junkie, a play on words that refers to the "length of his habit." Throughout these sections especially, a "gun" can refer to an actual firearm, the needle junkies use to shoot heroin into their veins, or a penis.

The final section, the one which gives the song its name, was originally written as a doo-wop parody and attached to the original demo version of another White Album song of John's, "I'm So Tired." That song was written in India and dealt with the pain of his absence from Ono: "When I hold you in your (sic) arms / when you show me each one of your charms / I wonder, should I get up and go to the funny farm." Rewritten to focus on the gun metaphor, it also plays into the junkie motif with the line "When I hold you in my arms, when I feel my finger on your trigger, I know no one can do me no harm," not to mention the double entendre of the backing vocals' "bang bang, shoot shoot." However, John and Yoko were always adamant that they were terrified of needles and snorted heroin rather than injecting it, so the idea of this "gun" may be more literal.

The finished song was, incredibly enough, rehearsed and performed as one complete work, which may be why the group attempted nearly 70 takes in 15 hours over two days - two guitars, bass, and drums - to get the desired result. In the end, there is one edit in the song; on September 24, Lennon decided he liked the beginning of Take 53 and the end of Take 65, so the two were spliced together, "Strawberry Fields Forever"-style, just before the final "Happiness" section kicks in. Backing vocals and a re-cut lead vocal were done on the 25th.

"Happiness Is a Warm Gun" is Paul McCartney's favorite song on the White Album. Although tensions were high among the band during the album's recording sessions, they reportedly collaborated as a close unit to work out the song's challenging rhythmic and meter issues, and consequently considered it one of the few true "Beatles" songs on the album.

Takes: 65

Personnel – 

John Lennon – Lead and backing vocals, rhythm guitar (1965 Epiphone E230TD(V) Casino)
Paul McCartney – Backing vocals, bass guitar (1964 Rickenbacker 4001S)
George Harrison – Backing vocals, lead guitar (1968 Fender Rosewood Telecaster)Paul
Ringo Starr – Drums (Ludwig), tambourine

Trivia –

On October 15, as the band were polishing up the White Album songs for final release, several overdubs were added, including a second organ melody noodling behind Lennon in the first two sections, extra tambourine in the next two sections, and a piano (played by McCartney) in the finale. These were later judged to be too intrusive by John, who was already leaning towards the minimalist style he would explore in "Come Together" and his solo song "Cold Turkey," and so they were buried far, far down in the final mix. However, they've since been added back in by bootleggers. In addition, a tuba played an "oompah" rhythm in the "I need a fix" section, a rare use of it in a Beatles song outside of "A Day in the Life." It was removed entirely.

Ringo plays a 4/4 beat in the second section of the song ("She's well acquainted...") although John sings in 4/4, 5/4, and 6/4 phrases. John alternates between 9/8 and 12/8 in the next section ("I need a fix"), which Ringo backs in a straight 6/8 signature. The "Mother Superior" section alternates between 6/8 and 6/4 time and ends each phrase in 7/4, with Starr cutting his 6/8 beat short. Finally, the middle of the "doo-wop" section ("When I hold you in my arms...") is in 6/4 time, but Ringo plays it in 4/4. Throughout, Ringo seems to trust the song to eventually land on his downbeats, creating an unstudied example of polyrhythmic performance that was rare for the group. John Bonham employs a similar trick in accompanying the odd time signatures of the guitar riff in Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog."

Originally, the "I need a fix" lyric triplet was supposed to be run through twice, but the first instance was replaced by George's moaning guitar solo. However, the original stereo mix edited it out rather sloppily, and a final "down" can be heard just as the solo ends. The original mono mix leaves in some stray laughter at the very end of the song, just before Ringo's concluding flourish. That last drumbeat, taken from a different acetate, was also missing from the original Italian release of the White Album.

John loved this song and considered it one of his favorites, though he somewhat disingenuously claimed heroin was not an inspiration. In addition, this was Paul's favorite of all John's songs on the White Album. The BBC, however, was not so appreciative; concerned over the song's drug and sex connotations, it banned the song outright. The song caused a similar outcry in the US, where it was considered in bad taste, having been written just days after the assassination of Robert Kennedy.

Today in Beatles History (From The Internet Beatles Album) March 17 –

1945 – Patricia Anne Boyd is born in Tauton, Somerset, England.

1962 – Party at the family house in Huyton, thrown by Dolly, mother of Vera and Joan Brown, who has become engaged to Sam Leach. Guests, among others: the Beatles, Brian, Rory Storm, Bob Wooler. Brian pursues Vera all night.

1963 – Concert at the Embassy, Peterborough (Chris Montez and Tommy Roe tour).

1964 – Shooting for 'A Hard Day's Night': Beatles dancing to "I Wanna Be Your Man" and "Don't Bother Me", at The Garrison, downstairs area of Les Ambassadeurs, London.

1967 – Studio 2. 7.00pm-12.45am. Recording: "She's Leaving Home" (takes 1-6). Producer: George Martin; Engineer: Geoff Emerick; 2nd Engineer: Richard Lush. 

– Recording of strings for "She's Leaving Home". The first woman specially recruited for a Beatles session participates: Sheila Bromberg (harp).

1969 – US single release: "Badge".

1970 – US gold certification: single Let It Be. 

– US gold certification: Live Peace In Toronto 1969.